The Interstate out of Grand Island wasn’t in perfect shape, but it wasn’t bad, either. The historian in him was more than a little interested in the fact that he was traveling the route of the original Union Pacific railroad and some of the overland trails where so many had made their trek westward. He was glad to follow in their footsteps.

In the early afternoon he got to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and turned south on Interstate 25. It was less than an hour later when Kyle reached his new hometown. The snow wasn’t deep here, only a couple of inches, so Fort Collins must have missed the brunt of the storm, but the mountains to the southwest were bright and white. The sight was something he was going to have to get used to, but he didn’t think he’d have any problems doing that.

A few days before he left Wychbold he’d arranged with Bob for some help in unloading; Bob had told him to call when he got close and he’d have someone lined up. When he called, Bob told him that he was busy with family stuff, but that he’d call Kyle’s new administrative assistant, Andrea Bolenbaugh, to come to the apartment to help him.

A few minutes after Kyle parked the rig in front of his apartment a car parked nearby, and Andrea got out – he’d met her briefly on the day of his interview. She was a reasonably attractive woman somewhat older than him, and she’d brought her husband Bruce with her; he was a heavy-set guy who had the appearance of having once been a football player. “Kyle, it’s good to know you made it in all right. We were wondering about you, what with the snowstorm.”

Kyle explained that he’d sat out a day in Grand Island, and after a few minutes chatting they turned to unloading, including the stuff sitting in the Triumph. Kyle told them to just pile things in the living room and he’d sort it out over the next few days. He and Bruce made short work of the big things, and in an hour or so they were done.

As soon as the last load had been brought in, Andrea showed what a jewel she was by breaking out a big thermos of coffee and some doughnuts. They found places to sit, not necessarily on chairs, and spent a little time getting to know each other. They spent a few moments getting friendly before Andrea asked, “Are you sure you’re not going to need any more help with this?”

“No, I can handle it myself,” Kyle protested. “It’s going to take a while to figure out where to put all of it, and I don’t need to be any more confused than I already am. I’ve still got some time before I have to be at work, and then I won’t have much to do in the evenings.”

“Do you know anyone here in town?”

“Just Bob, and now you two.”

Andrea shook her head. “And to think you were on the road over Christmas,” she sighed. “Wasn’t it a little lonely?”

“It had to be done,” Kyle shrugged. “I saw my folks before I left, and there just wasn’t any other way to do it.”

“That’s a shame,” Andrea shook her head. “Look, maybe we can make it up to you a little. Why don’t you come on over to the house on New Year’s Day? We don’t do anything on New Year’s Eve, but we’ll sit around and watch parades and football and eat tacos and junk food. There’ll probably be a couple of other friends over, so it’ll give you a chance to meet some people.”

“It sounds pretty good to me,” Kyle said. “I hate to admit that I haven’t done much socializing since my girlfriend moved out of town a while back.”

“Does that have something to do with why you moved out here?”

“Maybe some,” he admitted. “I mean, it gave me just that much more reason to not want to stay around Wychbold.”

They talked for a while more, but the day was getting on and Kyle said he still had some things to do, so after a while the Bolenbaughs left for home, with his thanks. He went to the pickup and dragged the trailer with the Triumph to a nearby do-it-yourself car wash and gave the car a thorough going-over. There had been some salt spread on the Interstate during the day, and now that the car had dried off there were places it was caked with it. He did the best job he could cleaning it off.

Once he got the car dried off it was after dark, so he towed the car to the storage shed he had rented for it. It only took a few minutes before the car and the bike, which had also been on the trailer, were parked in the shed. As he towed the trailer toward a rental place so he could return it, he made a mental note he was going to have to do a really serious job of cleaning the car up in the daylight when it was warmer. He was glad it was going to be dry for the rest of the winter.

He was working at setting up his collapsible bookshelves the next evening when Chelsea called. “I hope you’re all moved in,” she said. “I know how tough moving can be.”

“Getting there,” he replied. “I lost a day to a storm in Nebraska, but I’m starting to catch up now.”

“Is your apartment going to be pretty nice?”

“Better than the one I had in Wychbold,” he said. “Newer, and on the ground floor. It’s going to take a while to get everything sorted out, though. So how did it go with your folks?”

“It could have gone better,” she sighed. “I mean, we didn’t really have any big fights or anything, but both Dad and Mom got snippy at times. They aren’t very happy with my being out on my own. I mean, the terms ‘married’ and ‘grandchildren’ came up more than once.”

“Welcome to the club,” he told her. “I used to get that stuff from my mother all the time. That’s part of why I’m glad I moved out here.”

“It’s about the only reason I’m glad I’m back in Arlington,” she told him. “I really don’t have much in the way of friends here. It takes a while for a new person to get accepted here, like maybe a generation or two. It wasn’t a lot of fun coming back to this lonely house, except that it was better than having to watch my back at my parents’ house all the time.”

“You didn’t tell them anything about Chastity White, did you?”

“Oh, hell no,” she snorted. “I knew better than that. They used to be pretty churchy when I still lived at home, but when they moved down to Texas they got mixed up with some real fundamentalist wackos. I mean, not as bad as the average church in Arlington, but close. So now they’re worse than ever, and nothing I do suits them. Kyle, I respect my parents, I really do, but I’m not looking forward to seeing them again anytime soon. I mean, I think we’re going to be on each other’s Christmas card lists and we may call once in a while, but I want to be pretty careful about anything more than that.”

“I can’t say as I blame you, and I’m pretty much in the same boat,” he agreed. “It may be a little better in time, so it’s probably just as well that I’m out here now.” He decided to try and change the subject a little or this could get depressing. “So how was the weather down there?”

“Not as warm as I expected,” she replied. “But it was rather humid, which made it uncomfortable. Between that and the fact that the beach I saw was pretty junky, I was just as glad that I didn’t bother to take a swimsuit with me. Besides, they probably wouldn’t have approved of any swimsuit I wore, anyway.”

“Then it’s probably just as well you didn’t take one.”

“I guess. Like I said, while I don’t like this town, it’s better than being with them. Kyle, I wish I was out there in Colorado with you, I really do. It’s pretty lonely here, and about all I have to do is to surf the web and look for new ideas for swimsuits to make. I think I’m going to make some over the next few weeks just to have something to do in the evenings.”

“If you do, take a selfie or two in your living room and e-mail them to me, just so I can see what they’re like.”

“I might as well,” she sighed. “I can’t think of anything else to do, and I know you’d appreciate them.”

They talked for a while longer. It was clear to Kyle that she was feeling pretty isolated down there in Arlington – but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He could wish that things had turned out differently, but they hadn’t, and that was that.

Over the next few days he concentrated on getting the apartment livable. He had to go out a few times to arrange for things, like getting some groceries, finding some decent frames for some of his photos at a big box store and buying a new sofa. When he went out he tried to eat at different places between the apartment and Mercer-Howe; he found some places he liked, and some he didn’t. He set himself a deadline of having things pretty well under control by New Year’s Day and made it with a few hours to spare. He didn’t even stay up to see in the new year; the idea of sleep seemed too good to pass up.

For the previous few days he’d been looking forward to the gathering at the Bolenbaughs’ on New Year’s Day. He was no football fanatic and could take it or leave it, but the idea of firming up his acquaintance with them and maybe meeting someone new was hard to resist. Andrea had told him it didn’t matter when he showed up, and if he wanted to get there early to catch the Rose Parade, that was fine with her – she’d have coffee and fresh homemade cinnamon buns, and the idea really appealed to him.

The party was well under way; the house smelled of fresh baking, and there were already other guests there. Andrea was busy in the kitchen, but Bruce introduced him to his friend Curtis Hotchkiss and his wife Denise. Curt was tallish and solid and, like Bruce, looked like at one time he’d have known what to do if someone stuck a football in his hand. Denise, another Mercer-Howe employee, was a little shorter than average, a blonde who was definitely on the solid side, but bubbly and smiley; Kyle got the idea that she was a real mommy and homemaker type. Somewhere along the way he learned they had the kids parked with Denise’s mother for the day.

They settled in to do a little getting to know each other and a little parade watching; after a few minutes, Andrea and another woman came into the living room from the kitchen, carrying plates of cinnamon rolls and other baked delights, along with a mug of coffee for Kyle.

“Good morning, Kyle,” Andrea said. “I’m glad to see you could make it this early. Have you met Gwen?”

“Afraid not,” he smiled, looking at the other woman. She was short, not much over five feet, and very slender, with chin-length light brown hair with no particular body to it. She was wearing loose jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, and her face was plain and nearly devoid of expression.

“Gwen, this is Kyle Murray. He’s going to be starting at the plant tomorrow. Kyle, Gwen is a friend who didn’t have anything to do today, so I invited her over.”

“Pleased to meet you, Gwen,” he said warmly.

“Hello,” she said in a voice that was so soft as to be nearly impossible to hear. Nothing more; she seemed to think it was enough – but she held out the plate of cinnamon rolls to him.

He took one to be polite, and said, “Thank you.” She nodded at him and turned to offer the rolls to someone else. Wow, strange, he thought, or else very, very shy.

Without anything else being said, Kyle soon figured out that her presence represented more than her not having anything to do today. He didn’t want to call it a setup, but maybe a case of making the men and the women numbers even and seeing if things clicked, since it was also soon apparent that they were the only two singles present.

Having that realization in mind, he thought that perhaps he ought to try to interact with her a little more when the chance arose, if for no more reason than to be kind to his hosts. After a while they were sitting on the sofa more or less next to each other watching the parade, when a really spectacular float went by. Someone had put some spectacular engineering and a lot of money into it, and he was impressed. “Gwen, what did you think of that?” he asked politely.

“Nice,” she said softly. That seemed to cover it sufficiently well for her.

Over the course of the next several hours, Kyle occasionally tried get some sort of conversation going with her, but mostly what he got was polite, one-word responses that didn’t carry much meaning. If she strung more than three words together at a time, he missed it. Nobody commented about her one way or another; it was almost as if she wasn’t there. Also, no one else seemed to push her to any conversation, either with them or with him. It was as if they understood something about her that he didn’t, and it made him wonder a little.

After the parades wound up and the football got under way, Gwen spent most of the time in the kitchen helping Andrea and Denise, but with nothing being said he got the idea that she was only doing a small proportion of the work. She just seemed to be more comfortable around the women, and from what he could tell she wasn’t much more conversational when she was with them.

While that was going on, the men sat in the living room and talked about various interests; Kyle’s Spitfire came into the discussion early on, and Bruce said it really looked sharp. Curtis had an antique Norton Atlas motorcycle of about the same vintage as Kyle’s Triumph; they agreed that while the vehicles were neat, getting parts for English machines that old could really be a pain in the butt. They also talked about other things; it proved that both couples liked skiing, and as far as they were concerned there is none better to be had than in Colorado. While Kyle had never tried it, he thought it sounded interesting, and the possibility of a weekend trip sometime came up. He even talked about his photography a little bit, but stuck to the artsy side of it and never mentioned Chastity White.

Once the football got under way, Gwen joined the others in the living room again, and mostly sat back on the couch watching the game but not seeming really interested in it – at least if she paid any real attention it didn’t show at all. From time to time Kyle persisted in trying to get her to say something, but mostly failed. If this was a setup, he thought, it sure wasn’t going very well.

Afternoon became evening. While it was fun to hang out with people he was coming to like, Kyle had a definite limit of how much football he could take at one time. Besides, he knew he had to start work the next day, and over the course of the day Andrea had come right out and said that there were some things that had gotten backlogged while waiting for him to show up. It looked like tomorrow was going to be a long day, and when one game ended he decided it was time to leave.

“Thank you for coming,” Andrea said as she dug his coat out of the bedroom. “I hope you had a good time.”

“I think you may have overfed me,” he smiled. “This has been one of the better days I’ve had in months.”

As got set to leave, Bruce and Curtis and Denise all thanked him for being there, and Gwen smiled at him as he pulled on his coat and got ready to leave. He felt good as he drove back to his apartment; it had been a long time since he’d spent a day with friends like them – even Gwen sort of counted.

He got up early the next morning to spiff up a little more than normal, since it was to be the first day on his new job and he wanted to make a good impression. He even got there a little early and was waiting for Bob when he got in.

“I take it Andrea took good care of you,” Bob asked after their exchange of “Good mornings.”

“Oh, yeah. She and her husband were a big help with unloading, and they even had me over to their house to watch football yesterday.”

“Good. She’s good people like that, and I’m glad she wanted to make you feel welcome. I’m sure she’s going to continue to be a big help to you. So are you ready to get to work?’

“Never been readier.”

There was quite a bit of it waiting, but it was a while before he got into it. He and Bob had a conference about goals, objectives, and procedures, along with some other details, and there would have to be a visit to Human Resources to square away the paperwork before he could actually get down to business. Therefore, it was mid-morning before he actually got to his office and could sit down with Andrea to go over what needed to be done. She had been right the day before: there was plenty, and it would obviously take days to beat the stack down to controllable levels.

Even trying to figure out what came first was something that took a while, even with Andrea’s help in spots; while the procedures were similar to those used in Wychbold, the materials and suppliers were very different. It was easy to see he was going to be a while learning everything.

Noon came and went; he was so engrossed in his work that he barely noticed it. A little before one she stuck her head in his office and said, “Kyle, didn’t you have lunch?”

“I never even thought about it,” he admitted. “I had my mind on what I was doing here.”

“Just as a word to the wise, it’s not a bad idea to take a break over lunch. The higher-ups don’t think too much of people having lunch at their desks. Oh, once in a while is all right if you’re really busy, but they like to see people in the lunchroom. They think everyone needs a break to stay sharp, and I’ve come to believe they’re right.”

“Yeah, you’re right, I really need the break. Thanks for reminding me. I take it they have a lunchroom here?”

“They do, and it has sandwich machines and that sort of thing. The heck of it is that they’re usually a little under-supplied, and the good stuff is usually gone by now. If you can get along on a can of soda and a bag of chips you’re probably all right. I usually brown-bag it.”

“I never even thought about that. Back in Wychbold all they had was the pop machines, so I had to brown-bag it every day. I’ll just keep the habit going.”

Andrea smiled at him. “I thought you might not have brought anything, so I threw in an extra sandwich in case you needed it.”

“Andrea, you’re a jewel, you know that?”

“I’m just trying to help you get comfortable,” she smiled. “I know what it’s like to be new in town and not know anyone, or what the deal is on everything. I’ll go grab it for you. We also have sort of a community coffeepot if you want to pitch in a few bucks on it every now and then.”

“Count me in.”

“Great, I’ll bring you a cup, too. I recall from yesterday you take it black.”

She was back in a minute or so and set the coffee and the sandwich on his desk for him. “By the way,” she said. “Thanks for being so kind to Gwen yesterday. She said she kind of likes you.”

“Then she said more to you than she did to me,” he observed. “I don’t think I got a total of fifty words out of her all day.”

“She never says much, but she’s a little more open with people she knows, and it takes a while. She’s actually a nice person, even though she’s a little mousy and quiet. I keep hoping that someday someone will come along and light her fire, but somehow it hasn’t happened yet.”

Kyle was reminded of the common belief around college that the quiet ones often turned into firecrackers in bed, but somehow he couldn’t believe that of Gwen. He had a gut feeling that he didn’t have a hot enough match to light her fuse. However, he was careful to not say any of that to Andrea, but just remarked, “I could see how having someone who isn’t very demanding could appeal to some guys.”

“Well, yes, she’s all of that,” Andrea sighed. “I don’t want to say she’s easily led, but she’s usually willing to go along with what someone suggests, up to a point at least. But I’ve only rarely see the initiative to start something herself.”

“You know, I sort of got that impression of her,” he replied thoughtfully. “It could get irritating very easily.”

“Yes, but there are times it can be appealing, too. She wouldn’t be the kind of person who would try to lead you around by the nose.” She sighed again and said, “Look, Kyle, I get a little pushy at times and I know it. Maybe this is one of those times. I know you don’t have a girlfriend here or anything, and I’m really not trying to set you up, but sometime if you find yourself wanting a companion to go to a show or something, she’d be a good person to take. She likes going out like that but is afraid to go by herself.”

“Well, maybe,” he said, furrowing his brow a little. There had been times in the past when he would have liked to go to a movie or something and didn’t want to go by himself. A safe date with a girl he had no ulterior motives in mind for would have been welcome on several such occasions. “It’s something to think about,” he conceded.

“One of the neat things about this town is that there usually is something to do. The college drama group is especially active and there are some good amateur theater groups. They’re not exactly Broadway quality but are pretty good. Bruce and I like to get out and go to them and we often take Gwen. Perhaps you’d be interested in joining us sometime.”

Kyle could recognize a blatant setup when he saw one, and this one was easy to pick out. Gwen was hardly the most appealing woman he’d ever met, even leaving Chelsea out of the running, but something like that might have possibilities even if seeing the show was all that he got out of it. “Well, maybe,” he replied.

“You might find that it’s relaxing to be on a date with Gwen after you’ve had to deal with the sharks in the lunchroom,” she smirked.

“Sharks in the lunchroom?”

“You’ll see what I mean,” she laughed. “A young, good-looking, single guy like you? You’re shark bait, Kyle, and you might as well get used to it.”

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